Lord Byron resolves to join the Greeks--Arrives at Cephalonia--Greek
Factions--Sends Emissaries to the Grecian Chiefs--Writes to London
about the Loan--To Mavrocordato on the Dissensions--Embarks at lest
for Missolonghi
While The Liberal was halting onward to its natural doom, the
attention of Lord Byron was attracted towards the struggles of
Greece.
In that country his genius was first effectually developed; his name
was associated with many of its most romantic scenes, and the cause
was popular with all the educated and refined of Europe. He had
formed besides a personal attachment to the land, and perhaps many of
his most agreeable local associations were fixed amid the ruins of
Greece, and in her desolated valleys. The name is indeed alone
calculated to awaken the noblest feelings of humanity. The spirit of
her poets, the wisdom and the heroism of her worthies; whatever is
splendid in genius, unparalleled in art, glorious in arms, and wise
in philosophy, is associated in their highest excellence with that
beautiful region.
Had Lord Byron never been in Greece, he was, undoubtedly, one of
those men whom the resurrection of her spirit was likeliest to
interest; but he was not also one fitted to do her cause much
service. His innate indolence, his sedentary habits, and that all-
engrossing consideration for himself, which, in every situation,
marred his best impulses, were shackles upon the practice of the
stern bravery in himself which he has so well expressed in his works.
It was expected when he sailed for Greece, nor was the expectation
unreasonable with those who believe imagination and passion to be of
the same element, that the enthusiasm which flamed so highly in his
verse was the spirit of action, and would prompt him to undertake
some great enterprise. But he was only an artist; he could describe
bold adventures and represent high feeling, as other gifted
individuals give eloquence to canvas and activity to marble; but he
did not possess the wisdom necessary for the instruction of councils.
I do, therefore, venture to say, that in embarking for Greece, he was
not entirely influenced by such exoterical motives as the love of
glory or the aspirations of heroism. His laurels had for some time
ceased to flourish, the sear and yellow, the mildew and decay, had
fallen upon them, and he was aware that the bright round of his fame
was ovalling from the full and showing the dim rough edge of waning.
He was, moreover, tired of the Guiccioli, and again afflicted with a
desire for some new object with which to be in earnest. The Greek
cause seemed to offer this, and a better chance for distinction than
any other pursuit in which he could then engage. In the spring of
1823 he accordingly made preparations for transferring himself from
Genoa to Greece, and opened a correspondence with the leaders of the
insurrection, that the importance of his adhesion might be duly
appreciated.
Greece, with a fair prospect of ultimate success, was at that time as
distracted in her councils as ever. Her arms had been victorious,
but the ancient jealousy of the Greek mind was unmitigated. The
third campaign had commenced, and yet no regular government had been
organized; the fiscal resources of the country were neglected: a
wild energy against the Ottomans was all that the Greeks could depend
on for continuing the war.
Lord Byron arrived in Cephalonia about the middle of August, 1823,
where he fixed his residence for some time. This was prudent, but it
said nothing for that spirit of enterprise with which a man engaging
in such a cause, in such a country, and with such a people, ought to
have been actuated--especially after Marco Botzaris, one of the best
and most distinguished of the chiefs, had earnestly urged him to join
him at Missolonghi. I fear that I may not be able to do justice to
Byron's part in the affairs of Greece; but I shall try. He did not
disappoint me, for he only acted as might have been expected, from
his unsteady energies. Many, however, of his other friends longed in
vain to hear of that blaze of heroism, by which they anticipated that
his appearance in the field would be distinguished.
Among his earliest proceedings was the equipment of forty Suliotes,
or Albanians, whom he sent to Marco Botzaris to assist in the defence
of Missolonghi. An adventurer of more daring would have gone with
them; and when the battle was over, in which Botzaris fell, he
transmitted bandages and medicines, of which he had brought a large
supply from Italy, and pecuniary succour, to the wounded.
This was considerate, but there was too much consideration in all
that he did at this time, neither in unison with the impulses of his
natural character, nor consistent with the heroic enthusiasm with
which the admirers of his poetry imagined he was kindled.
In the mean time he had offered to advance one thousand dollars a
month for the succour of Missolonghi and the troops with Marco
Botzaris; but the government, instead of accepting the offer,
intimated that they wished previously to confer with him, which he
interpreted into a desire to direct the expenditure of the money to
other purposes. In his opinion his Lordship was probably not
mistaken; but his own account of his feeling in the business does not
tend to exalt the magnanimity of his attachment to the cause: "I
will take care," says he, "that it is for the public cause, otherwise
I will not advance a para. The opposition say they want to cajole
me, and the party in power say the others wish to seduce me; so,
between the two, I have a difficult part to play; however, I will
have nothing to do with the factions, unless to reconcile them, if
possible."
It is difficult to conceive that Lord Byron, "the searcher of dark
bosoms," could have expressed himself so weakly and with such vanity;
but the shadow of coming fate had already reached him, and his
judgment was suffering in the blight that had fallen on his
reputation. To think of the possibility of reconciling two Greek
factions, or any factions, implies a degree of ignorance of mankind,
which, unless it had been given in his Lordship's own writing, would
not have been credible; and as to having nothing to do with the
factions, for what purpose went he to Greece, unless it was to take a
part with one of them? I abstain from saying what I think of his
hesitation in going to the government instead of sending two of his
associated adventurers, Mr Trelawney and Mr Hamilton Brown, whom he
despatched to collect intelligence as to the real state of things,
substituting their judgment for his own. When the Hercules, the ship
he chartered to carry him to Greece, weighed anchor, he was committed
with the Greeks, and everything short of unequivocal folly he was
bound to have done with and for them.
His two emissaries or envoys proceeded to Tripolizza, where they
found Colocotroni seated in the palace of the late vizier, Velhi
Pasha, in great power; the court-yard and galleries filled with armed
men in garrison, while there was no enemy at that time in the Morea
able to come against them! The Greek chieftains, like their classic
predecessors, though embarked in the same adventure, were personal
adversaries to each other. Colocotroni spoke of his compeer
Mavrocordato in the very language of Agamemnon, when he said that he
had declared to him, unless he desisted from his intrigues, he would
mount him on an ass and whip him out of the Morea; and that he had
only been restrained from doing so by the representation of his
friends, who thought it would injure their common cause. Such was
the spirit of the chiefs of the factions which Lord Byron thought it
not impossible to reconcile!
At this time Missolonghi was in a critical state, being blockaded
both by land and sea; and the report of Trelawney to Lord Byron
concerning it, was calculated to rouse his Lordship to activity.
"There have been," says he, "thirty battles fought and won by the
late Marco Botzaris, and his gallant tribe of Suliotes, who are shut
up in Missolonghi. If it fall, Athens will be in danger, and
thousands of throats cut: a few thousand dollars would provide ships
to relieve it; a portion of this sum is raised, and I would coin my
heart to save this key of Greece." Bravely said! but deserving of
little attention. The fate of Missolonghi could have had no visible
effect on that of Athens.
The distance between these two places is more than a hundred miles,
and Lord Byron was well acquainted with the local difficulties of the
intervening country; still it was a point to which the eyes of the
Greeks were all at that time directed; and Mavrocordato, then in
correspondence with Lord Byron, and who was endeavouring to collect a
fleet for the relief of the place, induced his Lordship to undertake
to provide the money necessary for the equipment of the fleet, to the
extent of twelve thousand pounds. It was on this occasion his
Lordship addressed a letter to the Greek chiefs, that deserves to be
quoted, for the sagacity with which it suggests what may be the
conduct of the great powers of Christendom.
"I must frankly confess," says he, "that unless union and order are
confirmed, all hopes of a loan will be in vain, and all the
assistance which the Greeks could expect from abroad, an assistance
which might be neither trifling nor worthless, will be suspended or
destroyed; and what is worse, the great powers of Europe, of whom no
one was an enemy to Greece, but seemed inclined to favour her in
consenting to the establishment of an independent power, will be
persuaded that the Greeks are unable to govern themselves, and will,
perhaps, undertake to arrange your disorders in such a way, as to
blast the brightest hopes you indulge, and that are indulged by your
friends."
In the meantime, Lord Byron was still at the villa he had hired in
Cephalonia, where his conduct was rather that of a spectator than an
ally. Colonel Stanhope, in a letter of the 26th of November,
describes him as having been there about three months, and spending
his time exactly as every one acquainted with his habits must have
expected. "The first six weeks he spent on board a merchant-vessel,
and seldom went on shore, except on business. Since that period he
has lived in a little villa in the country, in absolute retirement,
Count Gamba (brother to the Guiccioli) being his only companion."--
Such, surely, was not exactly playing that part in the Greek cause
which he had taught the world to look for. It is true, that the
accounts received there of the Greek affairs were not then
favourable. Everybody concurred in representing the executive
government as devoid of public virtue, and actuated by avarice or
personal ambition. This intelligence was certainly not calculated to
increase Lord Byron's ardour, and may partly excuse the causes of his
personal inactivity. I say personal, because he had written to
London to accelerate the attempt to raise a loan, and, at the
suggestion of Colonel Stanhope, he addressed a letter to Mavrocordato
respecting the inevitable consequences of their calamitous
dissensions. The object of this letter was to induce a
reconciliation between the rival factions, or to throw the odium, of
having thwarted the loan, upon the Executive, and thereby to degrade
the members of it in the opinion of the people. "I am very uneasy,"
said his Lordship to the prince, "at hearing that the dissensions of
Greece still continue; and at a moment when she might triumph over
everything in general, as she has triumphed in part. Greece is at
present placed between three measures; either to reconquer her
liberty, or to become a dependence of the sovereigns of Europe, or to
return to a Turkish province; she has already the choice only of
these three alternatives. Civil war is but a road which leads to the
two latter. If she is desirous of the fate of Wallachia and the
Crimea, she may obtain it TO-MORROW; if that of Italy, THE DAY AFTER.
But if she wishes to become TRULY GREECE, FREE AND INDEPENDENT, she
must resolve TO-DAY, or she will never again have the opportunity,"
etc., etc.
Meanwhile, the Greek people became impatient for Lord Byron to come
among them. They looked forward to his arrival as to the coming of a
Messiah. Three boats were successively despatched for him and two of
them returned, one after the other, without him. On the 29th of
December, 1823, however, his Lordship did at last embark.